RULES: To celebrate National Poetry Month, write a two-line poem (couplet) that rhymes. It’s nice to have some meter or the same number of syllables per line, but not required. Paste your poem into the comment section with your name, city, and state (no need to list your last name or email address if you don’t want to). No submission fee.

DEADLINE: April 30 midnight (***Deadline extended to May 1, midnight EST). Winner announced May 10.

PRIZE: Free Society of Classical Poets 2016 Journal due out later this spring.

Featured Image: “Candidates for Girton College” by Frederick Brown, 1884.

Views expressed by individual poets and writers on this website and by commenters do not represent the views of the entire Society. The comments section on regular posts is meant to be a place for civil and fruitful discussion. Pseudonyms are discouraged. The individual poet or writer featured in a post has the ability to remove any or all comments by emailing submissions@ classicalpoets.org with the details and under the subject title “Remove Comment.”

A clock: you’ve got to walk it straight and narrow:
Pyramid based on truth I built as last Pharaoh.
Monkey is a feeling in front of the window;
Smile is healing even the Caliban`sorrow;
You are my little bow and I am the arrow,
I have in my hands the joy of a sparrow;
You learn by heart my lyrics like mellow;
Because, really I am a good funny fellow;
Peoples burn pain all in my bone marrow;
No night will fall down like a crowing crow
And let the struggle for an other tomorrow;
Each day is a leggy girl who still can borrow
No moments of my poem: a cloak to wrap a sorrow.

“19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression: this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

It was an honor to participate in the competition against so many talented poets, and a pleasant surprise to be one of the winners. Thanks very much to the Society for sponsoring the contest. I have won prizes or honorable mentions in 38 poetry contests, but this is one of my favorites because everyone was able to read the submissions. — Mike Burch